A ring is a left Q-ring if all of its left ideals are quasi-injective. For an integer m ≤ 2, a sfield D, and a null D-algebra V whose left and right D-dimensions are both equal to one, let H(m, D, V) be the ring of all m x m matrices whose only non-zero entries are arbitrary elements of D along the diagonal and arbitrary elements of V at the places (2, 1), …, (m, m-l) and (l, m). We show that the only indecomposable non-local left Q-rings are the simple artinian rings and the rings H(m, D, V). An arbitrary left Q-ring is the direct sum of a finite number of indecomposable non-local left Q-rings and a Q-ring whose idempotents are all central.

In this paper we discuss existence of positive solutions to a general nonlinear elliptic system of reaction-diffusion equations representing a predator-prey or competition model of interaction between two species, in a heterogeneous environment. We also consider homogeneous Dirichlet and/or Robin boundary conditions. In the predator-prey case we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of positive solutions, while in the competition case we give sufficient conditions. We use index theory in a positive cone to attack our problem and characterise our results by the sign of the first eigenvalues of certain Schrodinger type operators.

We give an explicit Krasnoselski–Mann type method for finding common solutions of the following system of equilibrium and hierarchical fixed points: where C is a closed convex subset of a Hilbert space H, G:C×C→ℝ is an equilibrium function, T:C→C is a nonexpansive mapping with Fix(T) its set of fixed points and f:C→C is a ρ-contraction. Our algorithm is constructed and proved using the idea of the paper of [Y. Yao and Y.-C. Liou, ‘Weak and strong convergence of Krasnosel’skiĭ–Mann iteration for hierarchical fixed point problems’, Inverse Problems24 (2008), 501–508], in which only the variational inequality problem of finding hierarchically a fixed point of a nonexpansive mapping T with respect to a ρ-contraction f was considered. The paper follows the lines of research of corresponding results of Moudafi and Théra.

In 1867, Sylvester considered n × n matrices, (aij), with nonzero complex-valued entries, which satisfy (aij)(aij−1) = nI Such a matrix he called inverse orthogonal. If an inverse orthogonal matrix has all entries on the unit circle, it is a unit Hadamard matrix, and we have orthogonality in the usual sense. Any two inverse orthogonal (respectively, unit Hadamard) matrices are equivalent if one can be transformed into the other by a series of operations involving permutation of the rows and columns and multiplication of all the entries in any given row or column by a complex number (respectively a number on the unit circle). He stated without proof that there is exactly one equivalence class of inverse orthogonal matrices (and hence also of unit Hadamard matrices) in prime orders and that in general the number of equivalence classes is equal to the number of distinct factorisations of the order. In 1893 Hadamard showed this assertion to be false in the case of unit Hadamard matrices of non-prime order. We give the correct number of equivalence classes for each non-prime order, and orders ≤ 3, giving a complete, irredundant set of class representatives in each order ≤ 4 for both types of matrices.

Approximate methods are developed for modelling the growth and collapse of clouds of cavitation bubbles near an infinite and semi-infinite rigid boundary, a cylinder, between two flat plates and in corners and near edges formed by planar boundaries. Where appropriate, comparisons are made between this approximate method and the more accurate boundary integral methods used in earlier calculations. It is found that the influence of nearby bubbles can be more important than the presence of boundaries. In confined geometries, such as a cylinder, or a cloud of bubbles, the effect of the volume change due to growth or collapse of the bubble can be important at much larger distances. The method provides valuable insight into bubble cloud phenomena.

The basic elementary results about convex sets are derived successively from various properties of segments. The complete set of properties is shown to form a natural set of axioms characterising the convex sets in a real vector space.

Let G be a simple undirected graph. The energy E(G) of G is the sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues of the adjacent matrix of G, and the Hosoya index Z(G) of G is the total number of matchings in G. A tree is called a nonconjugated tree if it contains no perfect matching. Recently, Ou [‘Maximal Hosoya index and extremal acyclic molecular graphs without perfect matching’, Appl. Math. Lett.19 (2006), 652–656] determined the unique element which is maximal with respect to Z(G) among the family of nonconjugated n-vertex trees in the case of even n. In this paper, we provide a counterexample to Ou’s results. Then we determine the unique maximal element with respect to E(G) as well as Z(G) among the family of nonconjugated n-vertex trees for the case when n is even. As corollaries, we determine the maximal element with respect to E(G) as well as Z(G) among the family of nonconjugated chemical trees on n vertices, when n is even.

For an infinite set X, denote by Γ(X) the semigroup of all injective mappings from X to X. For α∈Γ(X), let C(α)={β∈Γ(X):αβ=βα} be the centralizer of α in Γ(X). For an arbitrary α∈Γ(X), we characterize the elements of C(α) and determine Green’s relations in C(α), including the partial orders of ℒ-, ℛ-, and 𝒥-classes.

In this article, the existence of traveling wave fronts for a one step chemical reaction with a natural discontinuous reaction rate function is studied. This discontinuity occurs because of the cold boundary difficulty and implies a discontinuous system of ordinary differential equations. By some general topological arguments in ordinary differential equations, the Chapman-Jouguet detonation for exothermic reactions is shown to exist. In addition, the uniqueness of this wave is considered.

In 1975, Symons described the automorphisms of the semigroup T(X,Y ) consisting of all total transformations from a set X into a fixed subset Y of X. Recently Sanwong, Singha and Sullivan determined all maximal (and all minimal) congruences on T(X,Y ), and Sommanee studied Green’s relations in T(X,Y ). Here, we describe Green’s relations and ideals for the semigroup T(V,W) consisting of all linear transformations from a vector space V into a fixed subspace W of V.

A new construction of regeneration times is exploited to prove ergodic and renewal theorems for semi-Markov processes on general state spaces. This work extends results of the authors in Ann. Probability (6 (1978), 788–797).

We study some smoothness properties of a Banach space X that are related to the weak* asymptotic-norming properties of the dual space X*. These properties imply that X is an Asplund space and are related to the duality mapping of X.

The method of Lagrange multipliers for solving a constrained stationary-value problem is generalized to allow the functions to take values in arbitrary Banach spaces (over the real field). The set of Lagrange multipliers in a finite-dimensional problem is shown to be replaced by a continuous linear mapping between the relevant Banach spaces. This theorem is applied to a calculus of variations problem, where the functional whose stationary value is sought and the constraint functional each take values in Banach spaces. Several generalizations of the Euler-Lagrange equation are obtained.

We generalise a result of Hosaka and Kato by proving that if the set of periodic points of a continuous map of a tree is closed then each chain recurrent point is a periodic one. We also show that the topological entropy of a tree map is zero if and only if the w-limit set of each chain recurrent point (which is not periodic) contains no periodic points.

The length of every pair {A, B} of n×n complex matrices is at most 2n − 2, if n ≤ 5. That is, for n ≤ 5, the (possibly empty) words in A, B of length at most 2n − 2 span the unital algebra  generated by A, B. For every positive integer m there exist m×m complex matrices C, D such that the length of the pair {C, D} is 2m – 2.

The “type II conjecture”, proposed by J. Rhodes, gives an algorithm to compute the kernel of a given finite semigroup. We show that this conjecture is a consequence of another conjecture, of a topological nature. This new conjecture gives a simple and effective characterisation of the recognisable subsets of a free monoid that are closed in the finite group topology for the free monoid.

An example of a “non-developable” surface of vanishing Gaussian curvature from W. Klingenberg's textbook is considered and its place in the theory of 2-dimensional developable surfaces is pointed out. The surface is found in explicit form. Other examples of smooth developable surfaces not allowing smooth asymptotic parametrisation are analysed. In particular, Hartman and Nirenberg's example (1959) is incorrect.

In this paper we study almost sure convergence for arrays of independent and identically distributed random variables. We obtain a condition under which Marcinkiewicz's strong law holds and get a rate analogous to the law of the iterated logarithm under a condition weaker than Hu and Weber's.

We give holomorphic differentials of some algebraic function field K of complex dimension one which is a generalisation of a hyperelliptic field.

A group is covered by a collection of subgroups if it is the union of the collection. The intersection of an irredundant cover of n subgroups is known to have index bounded by a function of n, though in general the precise bound is not known. Here we confirm a claim of Tompkinson that the correct bound is 16 when n is 5. The proof depends on determining all the ‘minimal’ groups with an irredundant cover of five maximal subgroups.